So now that we know everything there is to know about printing and we know about variables, let's learn how to get data from the user and work with it.

#!/usr/local/bin/python

print “Go no further!”

name = raw_input(“Who are you?”)

print “Did you say:”, name

The above code prints a statement: Go no further! Then it asks the user: Who are you? and prompts them for some text. When the user types in the text and presses enter, it then prints: Did you say: and appends the value of the variable name to the end.

Let's say the user entered in the name: The Knights Who Go Neep! This is what the code would print:

  Go no further!

  Who are you?

  Did you say: The Knights Who Go Neep!

We use raw_input when we want to get textual input from a user. If we wanted to get a numeric value, we would use input, like so:

#!/usr/local/bin/python

age = input(“Enter your age: “)

print “You are”, age

print “If I were twice your age I would be: “, age * 2

Same principle as before. If the user had entered an age of 20, this would be the printout result:

  Enter your age:

  You are 20

  If I were twice your age I would be 40

And of course we could always combine the two together:

#!/usr/local/bin/python

first_name = raw_input(“What is your first name?”)

last_name = raw_input(“What is your last name?”)

age = input(“How old are you?”)

print “Your full name is “, first_name + last_name

Print “And this is your age: “, age

If the user had answered Lando Calrissian 50, then the printout would be:

  Your full name is LandoCalrissian

  And this is your age: 50

When you use the + symbol with text it is called concatenating strings, or adding them to one another. You will note that the values in the concatenated sentence have no space. You must add one to the sentence like so:

#!/usr/local/bin/python

first_name = raw_input(“What is your first name?”)

last_name = raw_input(“What is your last name?”)

age = input(“How old are you?”)

print “Your full name is “, first_name + “ “ + last_name

Print “And this is your age: “, age

This will print:

  Your full name is Lando Calrissian

  And this is your age: 50